Chapter 930: A Strange Bitch, A Strange Guy, A Strange Guy (15)

Even a forest sometimes screams.

CRRRRACK... The sound of trees that had lost the strength to stay upright, slowly snapping under their own weight—fibers tearing apart strand by strand.

When a towering fir collapsed onto the ground, nuts—pine nuts and seeds—poured out in a rush from the high knot-holes.

A startled squirrel woke from hibernation, scampering over the spilled nuts and letting out a thin, plaintive PEEP-PEEP of grief.

Beside it, another pine went down, and from a burrow hidden beneath its roots, a raccoon that had been sleeping through winter rolled over and flailed.

AWOOO—YIP-YIP-YIP—wolves and foxes shrieked in alarm at the sudden chaos, and rabbits and field mice burst out in panic.

Unfortunately, those screams of trees didn’t stop.

If someone stood on the mountain and looked down at the forest now, they’d say, “Good lord, what a disaster.”

With every BOOM, the leafy roof of the forest shuddered in a cascade—HUDUDUDUK—

and the thick canopy of the broadleaf woods sagged down in chunks, opening eerie, gaping holes.

BOOM! HUDUDUDUK—CRRRRACK—THOOM...!

A bundled loop of noises, like a refrain that refused to end, rolling on and on.

A truly horrific scene of environmental devastation.

But right now, in this primitive ancient era, the idea of “protecting nature” didn’t exist. If anything, it was the age when East and West both justified destroying nature with whatever words were handy.

In the East, beasts were humans reborn to pay for sins and accumulate merit. Who told you to be born a beast? That’s your past-life bad karma.

In the Westlands, those big-nosed foreigners claimed their god had commanded them to wreck nature, eat it, and flourish—apparently their god was positively delighted every time humans hunted animals and plants into extinction.

In this era, the only “awake” person who could understand the barbarity of this grotesque destruction was Qing.

Because she knew what kind of power nature would wield when it finally started retaliating in the distant future.

But Qing didn’t have time for that.

Because if she stopped, she was going to die.

“DIE! DIE ALREADY!!”

In an instant, Qing loaded strength into her right foot and snapped her direction hard to the left.

BOOM! The lower trunk of a tough evergreen exploded in a circular spiral, blowing a hole clean through big enough to fit two heads.

With only half—no, less than half—of its trunk remaining, the tree couldn’t hold. It slowly leaned over.

Qing left its collapse behind and sprinted again.

“GRAAAH! YOU DODGED AGAIN! WHY ARE YOU DODGING!”

The Heart-Eating Demon’s rage was desperate now—so raw there wasn’t even a hint of intelligence left in it.

What, was she supposed to take it?

Sure, it meant he was furious beyond reason, but still.

“I didn’t dodge! You missed! How do you miss when I’m standing still!”

“STANDING STILL?! YOU MOVED!!”

“You saw wrong! It’s an optical illusion! Look, I’m standing nice and quiet right here! Try hitting me!”

“You’re not standing still!!!”

It was an incredibly high-level conversation, traded proudly between an absolute master at the level of a Transcendent Demon... and the youngest Harmonization Realm prodigy in the history of the martial world.

...No, seriously, doesn’t this bastard get tired? He’s bleeding a lot, too—shouldn’t he be getting dizzy by now?

It wasn’t subtle. The Heart-Eating Demon’s lower garments were soaked and tacky, and the blood had spread along the inner seam all the way to the side of his knee.

With bleeding like that, he should’ve been reeling and losing strength by now, but he kept shrieking out of his throat and hurling qi shots like a freshly hooked giant fish, flopping with obscene energy.

Don’t tell me... once you’re Transcendent, you’re free from blood loss? Like you just grit your teeth and shout and squeeze, and then you start pumping blood straight out of your marrow?

But even if that was true, it didn’t matter.

I can run forever. No matter how monstrous his power is, if he keeps thrashing around and spamming qi shots like this, he’ll hit a limit eventually. And then—

That was the moment Qing’s eyes lit up.

PEEEEEEP—PEEP-PEEP-PEEP!!

A signal whistle screamed, sharp as a blade.

Then—

KREEEEEH!!! Over there! That way! There! Go!

Shrieks and clumsy, halfwitted shouts—clearly aimed this way.

And not long after, maniacs began pouring in from all directions through the woods.

They were monsters Qing had already seen before.

The ones that ran on all fours were Blood Hungry Ghosts. The ones that chirped “HEART! HEART!” or “HUNGRY!” with innocent cheer were... Blood Hungry Ghosts too? Or was it the other way around?

Qing’s expression soured instantly.

And what made it worse—

as those monsters barged in, a faint glimmer of reason slid back into the Heart-Eating Demon’s eyes, which had been rolling white.

“Come, my cute little things! That bitch—catch her! Grab her arms and legs and hang on!”

“KREEEEEH!” “Catch her!” “GRRR—YIP! YIP!” “Grab arms and legs!” “AWOOO!” “SMELL! ROTTEN SMELL!” “KIIYAAAAH!” “Hate smell! Order? Order, obey!”

Four-legged demon-things and two-legged lunatics charged in from the far side, converging into Qing’s front.

Qing yanked Moonlit Night free and barked viciously.

“MOVE!”

As if they’d move just because she said so. It was just a burst of killing intent—Qing hadn’t meant it as a literal request.

But—

“Huh?” “Eeeeing.” “Move?” “Little master!” “Smells like master!” “We move!” “We move!”

The Blood Cult monsters startled and jumped aside, splitting clean left and right to open her a path.

Soul-Seizing Demon Art was an atrocious demonic art that ate hearts to gorge internal power—

and at the same time, it was also a method of controlling Blood Hungry Ghosts and Blood Hungry Ghosts.

Blood Hungry Ghosts were monsters with minds half-collapsed from endless hunger—built to have their spirits suppressed so they would follow the owner of Soul-Seizing Demon Art.

And Qing had already learned Soul-Seizing Demon Art.

Worse: her attainment was a full ten out of ten.

Aside from the Heart-Eating Demon himself, that made her the highest.

So to Blood Hungry Ghosts and Blood Hungry Ghosts, she was inevitably the rank right below the Great Master—the Little Master.

Qing, who didn’t know that, only blinked, suspicious.

What? What’s the trick? Why are they pretending to listen?

“You worm-brained trash! Grab her! Grab her!!”

“Grab?” “Grab!” “We grab!”

The Blood Hungry Ghosts surged.

“GET LOST!”

“Lost?” “Lost!” “We lost!”

The Blood Hungry Ghosts backed off.

No—only the Blood Hungry Ghosts backed off.

In the chaos of those monsters flailing and not knowing what to do, the four-legged Blood Hungry Ghosts launched themselves with jaws gaping wide.

Blood Hungry Ghosts were the result of converting failed, mind-broken rejects into beasts—and for beasts, the order from the higher-ranked master took priority.

But—

“YIP! YIP! YIP!” “Ghk!” “GAAH—GAAH!” “GWEEEGH!”

The Blood Hungry Ghosts that had leapt for Qing suddenly grabbed and bit at each other, tangling midair and crashing down. They gagged—then vomited—streams of bile and filth spilling as they flailed desperately to get away.

Like animals that had caught the reeking stench of rotten fermented fish—

or, by Westlands notation, that “durian” fruit pulp—

they screamed while trying to cover their noses.

It was good they weren’t latching onto her.

But this was disgusting in its own way.

“...These bastards.”

Qing swallowed the heat surging up her throat.

I’m only holding back because I’m the one being chased right now. You pricks—just wait.

More importantly—

Qing stretched her fingers straight out and pointed.

“Grab that one. Grab your dad.”

“Grab dad! Dad good!” “Dad? My dad?” “Dad is dad?” “Don’t know! Still grab!”

The Blood Hungry Ghosts swarmed the Heart-Eating Demon.

Seeing it, the Heart-Eating Demon foamed at the mouth.

“Y-you bastards... even you are going to disrespect me? Me, the Demon Emperor— you filthy worms!!”

The reason that had been creeping back because he “cherished” those Blood Hungry Ghosts and Blood Hungry Ghosts—

the moment he thought even they were mocking him, it kicked the door down and ran away from home.

You could say, Is it really that serious? But—

imagine you raised guard dogs to protect your house, and when a thief breaks in, they wag their tails at the thief and happily play along.

And then they go further—

they take the thief’s side and charge their owner to bite.

“DIE! ALL OF YOU DIE! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DAAAAARE!!”

The Heart-Eating Demon’s arms flailed out wildly.

With every sweep, qi shots blasted out without caring who was friend or foe.

Holes punched through trees—BAM-BAM—

holes punched through the torsos of Blood Hungry Ghosts and Blood Hungry Ghosts—BAM-BAM—

and if a limb got hit, it vanished into a clean circular void, the remaining pieces dropping in clumps to the ground, blood spilling in ribbons.

In that chaos, Qing carefully lowered her body.

Even in broadleaf woods, not every tree was broadleaf. It wasn’t like a normal forest, but there were still enough fallen leaves to let her slide in—softly, carefully.

Because the leaf layer wasn’t deep, her generously rounded butt still showed a little—but a monk can’t shave his own head. There was nothing Qing could do about that.

In her own mind, she had disguised herself perfectly.

“GRAAAAH!!! YOU DOG—DOG BASTARDS!! WHO DARES DISRESPECT ME! NO ONE CAN DISRESPECT ME! DIE—DIE! YES, ALL OF YOU DIE!!”

Now it wasn’t Heavenly Flower Sword or anything else.

The Heart-Eating Demon had detonated completely.

Something about him—there was a ridiculous amount of grievance packed inside, and between that and all his talk about being “disrespected,” plus the whole emperor roleplay...

Yeah. Maybe he’d been carrying that kind of inferiority.

Not my problem.

Qing watched him from the leaves.

At first he’d formed qi shots and thrown them by hand.

Now, those goblin-fire-like qi shots formed in midair and kept firing everywhere, continuing a level of destruction that was almost obscene.

How much time passed like that?

The area became a wasteland.

With no intact trees left nearby, a huge “plaza” opened up in the middle of the forest—broken stumps, cratered earth, and body fragments of Blood Hungry Ghosts scattered everywhere.

And even then, it looked like he still had rage left.

“GRAAAH! WHERE ARE YOU! WHERE ARE YOU!”

He roared with fury, his shout booming through the wreckage.

In that moment, Qing quietly rose.

A slightly angled stance.

Her left hand extended with index and middle fingers straight—her sword-fingers pointing at the Heart-Eating Demon.

Her right elbow pulled back tight, the blade of Moonlit Night pressing into her lush breasts as she aimed.

It looked like she was holding an invisible bow—

and drawing Moonlit Night as the arrow.

Nine Swords of the Lone Sword had nine forms.

The first three were the foundation of Heavenless Emperor’s heaven-earth-human—the basic frame, the root.

The middle three... she had only learned one so far, but from what she’d seen of Cliff’s-End Severance, it was the part where you truly devoted your entire life to deepening heaven-earth-human.

So then—

the last three?

Probably the distilled essence of the martial theory Heavenless Emperor completed... or a signpost toward some ideal world he had been trying to reach.

That was why even a downgraded imitation, massively weakened, was hard to pull off.

At her level, she couldn’t even understand it.

But even so—among everything she had, it was the strongest.

A true finishing move.

Along the line of Qing’s left hand, the blade of Moonlit Night slid forward, quiet and steady.

It wasn’t fast.

She had simply extended her sword.

What kind of deranged act was this?

From ten jang away, she made a big, slow motion—just pushing her sword out at the enemy.

And yet—

it reached him.

It had already reached him.

Nine Swords of the Lone Sword, Seventh Form: Forget the Finger That Points at the Moon.

If you’ve seen the moon, forget the finger that pointed you to it.

If my sword reaches the enemy, then what does it matter how it got there? The process isn’t important—so why not omit it?

“—Kugh.”

The Heart-Eating Demon vomited blood in a gush.